When combatting wildfire from the air, various tools can be utilized. One common tool is to load an appropriately configured aircraft with wildland fire chemicals, fly the aircraft over the fire or an area adjacent the fire to be protected, and discharge the fire chemical from the aircraft. While such fire chemicals are quite effective in suppressing wildfire, the aircraft must travel to a reloading base and return to the location of the wildfire before additional loads can be dropped, decreasing the effectiveness of such aircraft proportional to the distance the reloading base is from the fire and the time such reloading takes.
In many instances bodies of water are available in the area where the wildfire is occurring. Helicopters can be utilized with buckets suspended therefrom which can be loaded with water and then flown to the site of the wildfire and released. Water is not as effective as fire retardants or suppressants in combatting wildfire. Also, helicopters have a lesser payload capacity than airplanes.
It is also known to utilize airplanes for dropping water onto wildfires. Such airplanes are configured to skim over a body of water to load tanks therein with water. Such airplanes then fly to the site of the fire where the water can be released.
Water's effectiveness as a fire suppressant can be significantly enhanced by adding a suppressant polymer to the water. One such polymer material is provided under the trademark FIREWALL II, provided by MGG, LLC of Carmichael, Calif. One unique characteristic of such polymer material is that merely adding the polymer material to water does not provide the full benefit of fire suppressant capacity to the water. Rather, the polymer must be thoroughly mixed with the water. Shearing forces associated with such thorough mixing cause the water to have the polymer fully activated and dispersed therein, so that the fire suppressant effect of the water can be maximized. A pump is typically used which provides the required shearing/mixing force to activate the polymer.
While it would be desirable to add polymer to water in a fire fighting aircraft, complexities associated with the required mixing to impart the highest fire suppressant effect on the water polymer mixture, requires appropriate polymer mixing equipment. Such equipment requires a relatively large amount of power and has significant weight. When a firefighting aircraft is being outfitted for firefighting, it is desirable that as much of the available payload capacity of the aircraft be utilized for carrying water and polymer, as possible. Known pumping equipment burdens the aircraft with extra weight thus minimizing effectiveness. Accordingly, a need exists for a method to mix polymer with water without requiring a powered mixer or pump.